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Eric Provience got his start in the construction business working for his father’s company, Southwestern Equipment. From the age of 18, Eric worked his way from laborer, to operator and eventually to running all aspects of the family business. When his dad decided to retire in 2008, Eric took the opportunity to start his own company, Pacific Grading & Erosion Control, Inc.

Pacific Grading & Erosion Control, Inc. does pretty much what its name implies, erosion control and grading. They also perform Best Management Practices (BMP), which is a form of environmental engineering geared towards stormwater management and treating polluted water systems. One aspect of this work includes the installation of bio retention fields designed to block or remove contaminants and sedimentation from stormwater runoff. Pacific Grading and Erosion Control also does a fair amount of demolition

work, as well as installing new drainage systems for new home project developers.

Pacific Grading & Erosion Control is located in Santee and their work area is primarily from Camp Pendleton on down to the border, but they have worked as far north as Bakersfield over to Palm Springs and east to El Centro. Their clients include homebuilders like Brookfield Homes, McMillin Homes, Pebble Creek Companies, WM Builders and Black Mountain Ranch. The also work for a long list of general contractors like CW Driver as well as a small amount of public works projects. “We work with a number of homebuilders grading pads from plus or minus three feet to finish surface,” says Provience. “We come in and blue top to the pad elevation, cut parkways for sidewalk, curb and gutter and core out street sections. We are also called upon to grade along new house foundation pads,

export dirt from sites and all sorts of other cleanup and finish work”

Pacific Grading & Erosion Control is currently working for Emmerson Construction at the new build of the Black Mountain Ranch 120-unit apartment project in San Diego. They also just finished work out on another 300-unit apartment complex just a few weeks back. “Business is steady and we have a lot of work on the books out ahead of us,” says Provience. “Most of our jobs right now are on average about a month long. There just aren’t many of those one to three yearlong projects going on at this time. The next year and a half looks good, but it is hard to look beyond that, so we remain conservative in the way we run our day-to-day operations.”

Part of this conservative approach involves renting the heavy equipment they need for each project. Pacific Grading & Erosion Control recently finished a job in Del Mar for a private

Pacific GradinG & Erosion control, inc.Relies on Hawthorne Rent-It Service For Their

Heavy Machinery Rental NeedsWritten By: Brian Hoover

2014 Rental GUide ISSUE CALCONTRACTOR 13www.calcontractor.com

show Jumping and general horse training facility. For this job they rented several machines including Cat 950 and 966 Wheel Loaders, Cat 321 and 336 Excavators, a Cat D6 Dozer, Cat compact excavators as well as vibratory plates and other smaller equipment from Hawthorne Rent-It Service. “We performed the grading for the new arenas and also graded and installed new drain lines, slopes and walls for this private high-tech horse training facility, says Provience. “The facility is currently being used by a couple of female athletes preparing to compete in the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro in Brazil.

According to Provience, his company is able to better control their overhead by renting the heavy equipment they need. “We currently own several skid steer loaders, skip loaders, a few compact excavators and a variety of other small compact equipment,” says Provience. “I looked at purchasing some heavy equipment, but with the emission laws and the general cost of owning and maintaining the bigger stuff, I made the decision to stick with rental,” explains Provience. “I simply put a pencil to it and found that for our sized company it makes better financial sense to rent the larger machines.”

Top Left: Pacific Grading & Erosin Control graded this show jumping horse arena in Del Mar. The earth was mixed with 4 inches of Nike Turf (ground Nike shoe rubber) to provide a modern hi-tech surface for the horse and its owners.

Top L to R: Eric Provience, Owner, Pacific Grading & Erosion Control (left), and Dan J. Walsh, HRIS Rental Sales Representative.

Above: Cat 326 excavator rented from Hawthorne Rent-It Service digging a bio retention basin a horse farm.

Below: Graded, stabilized and compacted decomposed granite parking lot intstalled by Pacfic Grading & Erosion Control in Del Mar.

14 2014 Rental GUide ISSUE CALCONTRACTOR www.calcontractor.com

Pacific Grading & Erosion Control has maintained a longstanding relationship with Hawthorne Rent-It Service that dates back to when Eric worked for his father at Southwestern Equipment. “When I was running my father’s company, we rented probably 20 times more from Hawthorne than we do today, simply because we were a much larger firm,” says Provience. “Even though my company today is much smaller and our rental needs are less, Hawthorne Rent-It Service and our rental sales representative Dan Walsh treat us like we are their biggest customer. When we call to rent, we get answers right away, not three to four hours later. They work with us to limit our fees if we incur unforeseen changes or weather issues and if we ever have an issue with a machine, they are out on our jobsite almost immediately.”

Purchasing heavy machinery requires a huge outlay of capital and then the contractor must maintain the equipment, haul it

and of course pay the sales tax. However, Eric Provience is quick to point out that there is definitely a time and place for purchasing equipment. “We will still look to purchase equipment from Hawthorne Cat that we use on a daily basis or if a long term job comes up where owning a larger excavator, dozer or wheel loader makes better financial sense,” continues Provience. “The economy and how long a business cycle may last is something that we look at as well. The zero or lower percent financing that is available right now also makes the decision to purchase the equipment we need much easier.”

Hawthorne Rent-It Service utilizes computerized preventative maintenance programs like Cat Product Link™, S•O•SSM Services, and VisionLink® (powered by Trimble) to monitor the maintenance, health and utilization of a machine. In addition to providing the machine’s health information, it can also show the location, hours and fuel utilization.

This allows the renter to operate their Cat equipment carefree, knowing that Hawthorne can detect problems or component failure in advance, avoiding costly downtime out in the field. This is just one of a long list of services that Hawthorne Rent-It Service currently offers to make renting construction equipment from them easier and more profitable. This allows the renter to operate their Cat equipment care free, knowing that Hawthorne can detect problems or component failure in advance, avoiding costly downtime out in the field. This is just one of a long list of services that Hawthorne Rent-It Service currently offers to make renting construction equipment from them easier and more profitable.

For more information on Pacific Grading & Erosion Control, Inc., please call (619) 938-3514. For more information on Hawthorne Rent-It Services please visit them online at www.catrentalstore.com/hawthorne-rent-it-service or call (800) 437-4228 for the location nearest you. Cc

Above: Cat 950K rented from Hawthorne Rent-It Service grading stabilized decomposed granite with a binder and for erosion and dust control.